The lakota Speak

STANDING WITH STANDING ROCK

Standing Rock has symbolically become one of the most inspiring and important unifying events among tribal nations of all time. 

As high winds whipped Standing Rock Reservation, followed by heat waves, snow and ice in 2016, more than 320 tribes from as faraway as Alaska, Mexico and Equador gathered in solidarity in North Dakota. They came together to pray for the protection of indigenous sacred lands and for the safeguarding of human rights to clean water. Echoes of the cry, <Water is Life> or <Mni Wiconi>, in the Sioux language, were heard as faraway as Greenland. 

Supporters of all races, creeds, and colours came together to wage a campaign against construction of the 3.8 billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline, which touches Lakota sacred burial grounds and impacts the fragile Missouri River, which provides drinking water for eleven US states.

The outpouring of solidarity that followed for the <water protectors> magnifies the fact that Standing Rock is only one of thousands of indigenous communities that are on the front line of efforts to stop economic domination by those who are willing to destroy the Earth to make money and turn pristine forests and rivers into industrial wastelands.

In the end, the DAPL pipeline project became a reality and the US Army Core of Engineers broke up the encampments and a number of protesters were arrested. But if we really see what happened, Standing Rock was not a failure. In some ways it was an unimaginable success reaching the far corners of our planet and  demonstrating the indigenous capacity to unify and provide solidarity to movements that face similar situations the world over.

Many people, including Awakening Spirit team members, arrived on site with food supplies, clothing, blankets, wooden stoves, and a geodesic dome to provide a waterproof council and prayer space for the long cold winter. 

Tens of thousands of people also gathered to create an online sacred prayer for the protection of the water, the safety of the communities at Standing Rock, and the need to terminate all destructive fossil fuel and mining operations. It highlighted our dependence on fossil fuels and our need to find alternative  sources of energy, such as solar, wind, and water. 

Standing Rock was and still is an invitation to those with an open heart and concern for protecting Mother Earth. It is symbolic of a struggle against greed and heavily armed state-sanctioned forces on one side, and indigenous people protecting their ancestral homes and lands on the other. It has many antecedents, but one who participated there said:

“We have never seen anything like this before—such strong and genuine solidarity.”

Today Standing Rock is symbolic of an even larger issue: how indigenous people’s rights are overridden by purely economic interests in many places throughout the world. Environmental destruction is not limited to pipelines on indigenous land, but can touch us everywhere. In the case of the Lakota Nation, treaties were broken, sacred land was stolen, children were taken out of their culture, tribal languages were forbidden, and the Earth in all its beauty and integrity was polluted and rendered a wasteland. 

If Standing Rock has touched our minds and our hearts, the struggle is about everything that matters. About standing up for each other, protecting our food and water sources, safeguarding our planet’s species diversity, creating child-friendly communities, and encouraging everyone everywhere to learn to walk lightly on the Earth and to protect her. She is our Mother and has always cared for us. 

MARTI PHOTOS